Lakers owner Jerry Buss dies

In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 80. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Jerry Buss, who built the National Basketball Association's Lakers into a sports franchise viewed as the gold standard in business and entertainment, died Monday.

Described by his daughter Jeanie as "a pioneer, visionary and trailblazer," Buss, who had been battling cancer, had became renowned as all those things mainly because he and the Lakers were uncommon winners. The Lakers announced he was 80, although according to the birthdate he listed in a 2006 interview transcript, he would've been 79.

Buss had been hospitalized for much of the past 18 months and died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 5:55 a.m. Monday because of kidney failure.

"We not only have lost our cherished father, but a beloved man of our community and a person respected by the world basketball community," the Buss children said in a statement.

"The NBA has lost a visionary owner whose influence on our league is incalculable and will be felt for decades to come," NBA commissioner David Stern said in released statement. "More importantly, we have lost a dear and valued friend. Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time."

Buss' 10 NBA championships – while missing the playoffs only twice in 33 seasons – are patently absurd. He blended Hollywood glamour with great basketball, which is why he could be given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 2006 for television advancements and be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 as a contributor to the sport.

With savvy decisions that played out both inside and outside of the arena, Buss seemed always the smartest and most daring guy in the room.

That includes the high-stakes poker room, his most recent passion that challenged him to match wits with the best professional poker players in the world. Buss' itch for ongoing competitive challenges was such that he was at a Bicycle Casino poker table while the Lakers' parade was going on to celebrate their 2009 NBA title.

Buss' intelligence was applicable in a variety of realms: He started out a graduate of the University of Wyoming with a degree in chemistry, believing education would be his springboard to whatever else he could imagine.

He was right.

Buss sought his doctorate in physical chemistry from USC, bringing him to the area with which he would become so identified. He shifted gears from the aerospace field into real estate – turning a $1,000 investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building into a Lakers empire that today is valued conservatively at $1 billion by Forbes magazine.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who was swayed by Buss' last-ditch phone call in 2004 in choosing to stay a Laker rather than sign with the Clippers, called Buss “extremely, extremely intelligent and extremely patient.”

“You think about the rivalry that took place between the Lakers and the Celtics and what that did for the global outreach of the game,” Bryant said. “It reached me, and I was all the way in Italy and I was only 6 years old.”

Buss owned 66 percent of the Lakers and intended to keep the team in the family by handing it down to his six children: Johnny, Jim, Jeanie, Janie, Joey and Jesse. All have roles or titles in the Lakers' organization, with Jim taking on most of his father's duties in running the team while Jeanie is in charge of business operations.

In recent times, Jim, Jeanie, Joey and Jesse took turns watching Lakers games on TV with their father from his hospital room.

"(He) showed amazing strength and will to live," the Buss children said in a statement. "It was our father's often stated desire and expectation that the Lakers remain in the Buss family. The Lakers have been our lives as well, and we will honor his wish and do everything in our power to continue his unparalleled legacy."

Jim Buss said in a October interview with the Register that his father liked the way the franchise was position for the future: "I think he's relieved. If you had to put it in words, I think he's extremely happy with what the family is doing with the business that he built."

Buss also noted: "I could never be compared to what my dad has done, that's for sure."

In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 80. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
In this June 18, 1981 file photo, Jerry Buss holds a Los Angeles Lakers shirt in Los Angeles. Buss died Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 80. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/File)
In this May 19, 1980 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss gestures as the NBA championship team is honored with a parade in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/File)
In this June 15, 1987 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss gets doused with champagne from members of his team as he holds the NBA Championship trophy after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics 106-93 to win the NBA Championship four games to two in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Lennox Mclendon, File)
Lakers owner Jerry Buss is seen after Mike Brown's introductory news conference at the team's training facility on May 31, 2011. KEVORK DJANSEZIAN, GETTY IMAGES
Jerry Buss, center, owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, poses with the Lakers Girls cheerleaders, after being honored with a television star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Monday, Oct. 30, 2006. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Los Angeles Laker owner Jerry Buss, right, walks out onto the court during the NBA championship ring ceremony as Kobe Bryant, left, and Derek Fisher look on before a basketball game against the Houston Rockets in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Los Angeles Lakers Earvin "Magic" Johnson hugs team owner Jerry Buss in the locker room after they won the 1980 NBA championship from the 76ers in Philadelphia May 17, 1980. They drank champagne and admired their trophy following the 123-107 win in the sixth game of the series. (AP photo/Gene Pushkar)
The Lakers' Kobe Bryant revels in the moment with owner Jerry Buss after their Game 7 victory over the Boston Celtics Thursday in Los Angeles in 2010. KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lakers owner Jerry Buss is shown before a fight in Las Vegas in 1991. HOLLY STEIN, GETTY IMAGES
Dr. Jerry Buss, with arms crossed, majority owner of the Lakers, listens to Magic Johnson speak during a press conference for The Magic Johnson Foundation Monday at Staples Center. The foundation was celebrating 20 years of working the urban communities. Johnson retired in 1991 after announcing he had contracted HIV. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jerry Buss, owner of the Lakers grins during a press conference at the Lakers El Segundo headquarters to announce the hiring of former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown in 2011. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lakers rookie Magic Johnson hugs team owner Jerry Buss in the locker room after they won the 1980 NBA championship from the 76ers in Philadelphia May 17, 1980. GENE PUSHKAR, AP
Lakers' owner Jerry Buss poses for photographs near a statue of former Lakers' announcer Chick Hearn before it was unveiled outside Staples Center in 2010. KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Lakers star Magic Johnson and Lakers' owner Jerry Buss watch the Lakers battle the Golden State Warriors during an NBA exhibition game Tuesday Oct. 19, 1999 in San Diego. LENNY IGNELZI, AP
Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss in a handout photo from the team. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LAKERS
Lakers owner Jerry Buss sits courtside before the start of the exhibition basketball game between the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at the Stan Sheriff Center, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, in Honolulu. MARCO GARCIA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lakers owner Jerry Buss, watches the WNBA's Sparks play in 2005. CHRIS CARLSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lakers owner Jerry Buss died Monday after a long battle with cancer. LEONARD ORTIZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jerry Buss, right, and son Johnny, watch a Sparks game in 2005. CHRIS CARLSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lakers owner Jerry Buss holds the NBA trophy after the Lakers won Game 4 of the 2002 NBA Finals. REGISTER FILE PHOTO
Lakers owner Jerry Buss, center, basks in the spray of champagne in the locker room after his team won the 1987 title. REGISTER FILE PHOTO
Lakers owner Jerry Buss, left, watches the Houston Rockets play the Lakers along with former Lakers coach Phil Jackson, right, and former O.J. Simpson trial witness Kato Kaelin, center, in 2005. MARK J. TERRILL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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